Saturday, May 4, 2013

Improv Pasta: Creamy Chicken Pasta

When the weekend comes around, it usually means its my turn to be in the kitchen. I'm only left with random vegetables that are left over before the next big shop, so what's left all goes into the pasta sauce... which is why it's called "Surprise Pasta" since it's never the same, thought this time would be a good opportunity to write something down. The final result is usually a mixture of western and eastern influences. Big part of it is the improvisation of the ingredient list and make do with what I have. Today, lunch is Creamy Chicken Pasta.

A quick raid of the fridge produced some sorry looking ingrediants. Most recipes calls for chicken stock which I cheated with using instant chicken soup.

Part One - Making the roux/white sauce
1. Butter and flour in a sauce pan and cook off the flour, careful not to burn the mixture.
2. Take sauce pan off the stove and slowly whisk in the milk before returning pan back onto the stove to thicken.
3. Once thicken add pepper and salt to taste.
4. Add and stir in the cream and take off the stove and set aside for now.

Part Two - Pasta prep
5. In a large pot add salt to boiling water before adding the pasta.
6. Once cooked, reserve half a cup of the pasta water.
7. Drain the water and run pasta under cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside.

Part Three - Finishing the sauce/pasta
8. In a sauce pan, first fry the garlic and carrot in some oil until golden.
9. Add the bok choy, pepper and courgette and add 1tsp of sugar, salt and pepper to taste and lightly fry.
10. Pour in the chicken soup and soak the chicken. Leave to simmer/reduce.
11. Pour in white sauce and and bring to a light boil.
12. Pour remaining pasta water into the pasta pot before pouring in the sauce.

That's all to it! If the sauce is a little thin, mix 1 tbsp of cornflour to 2 tbsp of old water and add to sauce in step 11. This should be able to satisfy up to 4-5 people with everyone getting a big bowl of pasta each.